Fin Art

Nigerian Killifish
Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianus "Jos Plateau"

(© Mark Owen - 1995)

(For a quick overview of this site dial up Species List.)

This page describes the art techniques used to produce Cool Tropicals. By clicking on any of the highlighted references you will see the pictures on their respective pages. As you will see from the discussion below, the writer uses a whole range of styles ranging from simple free-flowing sketches to more rigorously researched technical drawings. There is much to be learnt and a lot of pleasure to be had from ringing the changes in artistic style.

Watercolour is an ideal medium for aquarist/artists. After all water is the medium in which our subjects spend their lives. Generally a palette of primary colours seems to work best for brightly coloured fish such as the Paradise Fish which was completed with the triad of: ultramarine blue, lemon yellow and spectrum red. The killifish, at the top of the page you're looking at now, was painted with the triad of phthalo blue, gamboge yellow substitute and carmine red. A touch of acrylic medium, added to the water used to dilute the pigments, helps to avoid muddying the colours, always a risk with watercolour. A similar palette, but with a lighter touch, was used for this sketch of a Platy.

Gouache with india ink linework was used for the painting of the Texas Cichlid and straight gouache was used for this depiction of the notorious Piranha. This gives a rather gaudy effect but it is cleanly picked up with a scanner and so is quite useful for computer art work. Mixed watercolour and gouache was used for the Buenos Aires Tetra. Pure india ink as a wash, again with a touch of acrylic medium, was used for the painting of the Peppered Catfish. While this particular illustration doesn't show the markings of the individual fish too well, it hopefully conveys the spiny, armoured appearance of the Corydoras.

The Blind Cave Tetra was painted on black illustration board with white gouache. This is an interesting technique and a refereshing change from the usual watercolour process of working from light to dark. Another light image on a dark background is the Black Shark which is a simple pencil line sketch on white cartridge paper turned into a negative image after scanning into the computer.

I have to admit that scales pose something of a problem. We can either draw them meticulously, indicate them with a criss-cross pattern, leave them out altogether, or (and this is my preferred technique) splatter a few onto the paper in the hopes of achieving an appropriate effect! However one goes about it scales are a challenge.

Finally it seems worth acknowledging the extent to which photography has taken over from art as the medium for illustrating fishkeeping publications. Modern films and printing media produce exquisite results. But hopefully the humble artist still has a contribution to make by helping us to literally see our fish in a different light.